The Pleistocene Marine Gastropods of Rhodes Island (Greece)
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Beschreibung
This volume, format 30 x 21, examines 388 species, 7 of them new ones, and has 448 pages.
The species are illustrated by 90 plates with 1600 very good photos, with 159 enlargements and 103 SEM images. The plates and figures are preceded by a larger introduction dealing with the history of fossil research on the Island of Rhodes, a map of the studied localities, the description of the species, together with their distribution and other relevant observations. The summary of the distribution of the species shows which of them are reported for the first time from Rhodes Island. An extensive bibliography contains 435 titles.
With the climatic change at the end of the Pliocene and the cooling of the Mediterranean Sea, many species found it difficult to stay in their original habitats and to adapt themselves to the new climate. This situation offered three different possibilities: adaptation, extinction, or migration.
Some of the species which migrated to the Eastern Mediterranean quickly became extinct there, others succeeded in surviving for a shorter or longer period of time. Others still live today – some of them without transformation, others with some small mutations, and others by giving birth to new species. We can include in the number of species which did not survive or survived only for a short period the six species which we find exclusively in the Gelasian of Rhodes. The most interesting gastropod of this group is Sassia apenninica (Sasso, 1827), present in the Miocene of Austria, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Poland, Romania and Hungary, and in the Pliocene of Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy and Spain.
50 species thought to have become extinct in the Pliocene period are reported from the Calabrian of Rhodes, from one or more localities with a different number of specimens. Some of them have experienced a long odyssey: Hipponix sulcatus (Borson, 1822), found in Rhodes, is reported from the Miocene of Austria, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Poland and Hungary; by Sacco, 1896: 45 from the Pliocene in the vicinity of Bussana in Liguria (Italy). Another interesting species is Sveltia varicosa (Brocchi, 1814), present in two outcrops in Rhodes. In the Miocene period it is reported from Austria, Denmark, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Turkey, in the Pliocene period from Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia. Mitra ulivi Chirli, 2002 e Plesiothyreus pliocenicus (Chirli, 2004), were only known from the Pliocene of Tuskany (Italy). Among the species which suddenly transformed themselves is the Pliocene Natica raropunctata Sasso, 1827; its descendant is Natica stercusmuscarum (Gmelin, 1791), still present in the Mediterranean today, which we report from a Calabrian outcrop in Rhodes where it was found together with its operculum.
30 species, present in the Mediterranean today, are reported from the Pleistocene for the first time. The greater number of them originated in the Eastern Mediterranean, from where they spread throughout the Mediterranean Basin.
We signal 7 new species. Paying homage to the country where they were found we dedicate them to the ancient Greek Muses: Alvania calliope to the Muse of epic poetry, Alvania erato to the Muse of love poetry, Haedropleura polymnia to the Muse of sacred poetry, Mangelia melpomene to the Muse of tragedy, Mangelia thalia to the Muse of comedy, Clathromangelia terpsichore to the Muse of dance, and Mitrolumna euterpe to the Muse of music.
This is a book important for everybody who studies shells, including those collecting them.
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Autor*in
Ulrich Linse